[Hallicrafters] Tuner Cleaner (Radio ShacK)

[Bill Gerhold]

I have to put my .02c in on this.  Wafer swelling was debated a while back
on this site.  Except for the poster who said wafer swelling was a problem,
all other respondents, to the man, disagreed.

After performing restoration on many receivers and transmitters with the
phenolic wafer switches, I have never had this problem even when soaking the
wafer switch.  Of course caution should be observed when cleaning these
wafer switches, but I think the wafer swelling may not be entirely accurate.
I am not saying it cannot or never happened, but I think the incidents of it
happening may be very scarce.

K2WH

-----Original Message-----
From: hallicrafters-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:hallicrafters-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Clayton L.
Nicolsen
Sent: Sunday, November 20, 2005 9:10 AM
To: Hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net
Subject: re:[Hallicrafters] Tuner Cleaner (Radio ShacK)

One other important point about using spray tuner cleaners...

As you already mentioned, spraying it liberally on wafer switches, 
especially old ones, can be a problem as it can frequently cause the wafers 
to swell and the switch won't work properly.  As a previous thread stated, 
use some alcohol to remove some of the solution from the wafer.

However, a bigger issue is the tuning capacitors.  Never, never spray any 
kind of contact cleaner that leaves a residue on tuning capacitor fins.  
This will change the dielectric constant of the capacitor and dramatically 
change the alignment of the radio.  You also will need to clean the tuner 
residue from the capacitor fins.  The alcohol will work, or you can use any 
commercial spray cleaner.  Keep it out of the shaft bearings.


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